After a decade at some of the most prestigious restaurants in the world, chef Hasung Lee has opened his first restaurant, Oyatte, in New York City’s Murray Hill neighborhood near Bryant Park and Grand Central Terminal.
Born in Seoul, Lee has worked across the globe, including at Atomix and Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence winner Gramercy Tavern in New York City. He also spent time at Grand Award winners the French Laundry in Napa and Geranium in Copenhagen.
Late last year, Lee gained wider recognition as a competitor on season two of Netflix’s South Korean cooking competition show Culinary Class Wars, where he competed under the alias “Culinary Monster.” Lee competed against nearly 100 chefs and finished as runner-up.
At Oyatte, Lee expands on the ethos he developed as sous chef under Thomas Keller at the French Laundry. The restaurant sources much of its produce from a single farm: Crown Daisy Farm in Staatsburg, New York, operated by Brett Ellis, the former head farmer at the French Laundry.
General manager and sommelier Cecile Chastanet will echo that ethos in the wine list. “From the beginning, my goal was to match chef Lee’s intention in the kitchen—thoughtful, precise and expressive—by building a cellar that could speak to a wide range of palates while remaining authentic,” Chastanet told Wine Spectator via email. “We focused on working with terroir-driven winemakers, bottles that truly reflect where they come from, rather than simply assembling a list of recognizable labels.”
When it opened: May 5, 2026
The menu: The experience at Oyatte consists of an eight-course tasting menu, served across two levels of the farmhouse-inspired space ($210 per person, plus supplements). Guests begin in a lounge on the ground level, where they’re served a series of small bites—think housemade charcuterie with pickled magnolia buds or smoked eel mousse with squid and caviar. From there, guests move upstairs into an airy dining room, to be served mains such as mirin-marinated seared Maine scallop, or smoked quail with braised einkorn, or spring green porridge topped with black garlic gastrique and black truffle shavings—a standout dish from Lee’s time on Culinary Class Wars.
To pair, Chastanet offers both a standard wine pairing ($170) and a reserve wine pairing ($450). “One pairing I’m very excited about is the Petrolo Toscana White Bòggina B 2021 with the sweet rice flour donut filled with fermented carrot tartare and saffron raisin mostarda,” says Chastanet. “This one is more unexpected—the wine brings structure, subtle oxidation and layered aromatics that mirror the complexity of the dish, while the acidity keeps everything vibrant and precise.”
The wine list: Chastanet was most recently a sommelier at Keller’s New York City Grand Award winner, Per Se. Currently at about 280 selections, Chastanet’s program is focused on “terroir-focused producers” across France—in particular Champagne, Bordeaux, Burgundy and the Loire Valley—as well as Germany, Italy and Austria. Chastanet points to producers such as Claire & Frédéric Niger in the Loire, Alexandre Lamblot in Champagne and Nathan Kendall in New York’s Finger Lakes region as benchmarks of her cellar.
The design: The ground floor—where guests eat their first round of bites—evokes a farmhouse quality Lee wanted to bring to New York City. The lounge is clad with wood sourced from Crown Daisy Farm and accented by a quartz installation from Korean artist Bahk Seon Ghi that connects the first and second floors. The upstairs dining room is bright and minimalist, inspired by Lee’s time in European dining rooms such as Geranium.
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